The state's first ethanol production facility is set to be sold at a foreclosure auction later this month.

The $100 million factory, located about 20 miles west of Fayetteville in Hoke County, has been taken over by Cape Fear Farm Credit after the owner, Clean Burn Fuels, filed for bankruptcy in early April.

The foreclosure auction is set for Aug. 24, said Lonnie Player, Jr., a Fayetteville attorney who has been named substitute trustee in the case.

Clean Burn Fuels borrowed $69 million from Cape Fear Farm Credit to build the plant, according to Hoke County property records.

After operating for less than a year Clean Burn Fuels halted production at the plant in March. The company said initially that the move was temporary and that production would resume once high corn prices drop.

But corn prices have continued to rise, doubling over the last year.